Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt addresses senators during a session to review the government’s pension reform project in Paris on March 2, 2023 (AFP/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
The Senate, which voted in the night the end of several special regimes, is looking into the employment of seniors on Sunday, two days before a new mobilization of the unions which aim to put “France at a standstill” to fight against the pension reform plan.
The senators, mostly on the right, voted for the extinction for the future recruits of several special regimes, including those of the RATP and energy companies.
They must now examine another key point of the reform, the “senior index”. Rejected in mid-February by the National Assembly to the chagrin of the government, this measure provides for an obligation for companies with more than 50 employees to publish indicators on their employment rate for employees over 55 years old.
The social standoff continues to tense. The unions intend to mobilize on Tuesday, the sixth day of action, even more than on January 31, when the police had identified 1.27 million participants and the inter-union more than 2.5 million.
Decrease in the contributors/retirees ratio (AFP/)
According to police sources, between 1.1 and 1.4 million demonstrators are expected, including 60 to 90,000 in Paris.
The mobilization is moving into “higher gear”, assures the leader of the CGT Philippe Martinez on Sunday at the JDD.
“March 7 is going to be very big,” judge Simon Duteil, co-delegate general of Solidaires. “We are going to break the house”, adds the deputy secretary general of Unsa, Dominique Corona.
– “On your knees” –
The secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez (c), during the 5th rally against the pension reform, on February 16, 2023 in Albi, in the Tarn (AFP/Archives/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)
Major disruptions are expected in urban and rail transport, all the unions having called for a renewable strike at the RATP and the SNCF, from March 7.
“It’s going to be very hard,” warned Transport Minister Clément Beaune on Friday, calling on those who can to telecommute.
In the air, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) asked companies to give up Tuesday and Wednesday between 20 and 30% of their flights, in anticipation of the air traffic controllers’ strike.
At the invitation of the CGT, other professions are called to the renewable strike “until the withdrawal of the reform”: refiners, electricians and gas workers, garbage collectors, dockers, glass and ceramic workers…
The secretary general of the CGT Chemistry Federation, Emmanuel Lépine, said he was ready to “bring the French economy to its knees” to win the case.
A woman waits in front of a closed gate of the Montparnasse metro station during a strike in Paris on November 10, 2022 (AFP/Alain JOCARD)
In energy, the strike began on Friday afternoon with production cuts in several nuclear power plants.
The teachers will be on strike again, sometimes in a renewable way.
The unions also expect more unusual initiatives: construction sites stopped, store curtains closed, tolls open, roads blocked…
Other mobilizations are planned, in parallel with the debates in the Senate, which will end no matter what on March 12.
– “Breaking moment” –
The Senate immersed itself in the examination of one of the most sensitive measures of the pension reform project, the end of several special regimes (AFP / Archives / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
March 8, International Women’s Rights Day, will this year be placed under the sign of a pension reform deemed particularly unfair for them.
And the high school and student movements announced a day of mobilization on the 9th. “Block everything you can”, encouraged them on Friday the leader LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The inter-union will meet on Tuesday evening to determine the follow-up to be given to the dispute. The date of the 11th has been mentioned, without being confirmed at this stage.
Union leaders expect a quick response from the executive to their demands.
“The first sequel to March 7 is a political speech, from the government or the President of the Republic, which sends something back to the moment of rupture that is happening in the world of work today. today”, pleads to AFP Yvan Ricordeau, national secretary CFDT
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has planned to speak Monday evening on France 5.
The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt defended Saturday in Le Parisien a “left-wing reform” “without losers” while on the sidelines of a visit to the agricultural fair, his counterpart of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal raised his voice, denouncing strikes that will block the French “who toil”.
© 2023 AFP
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